Phantasialand: 31st May 2018

[AstroDan]

I took a trip to Phantasialand on Thursday. I have been visiting the park since 2007 and it is one of my favourites in Europe. However, I have to say, in some areas, the park doesn't quite seem to be firing on all cylinders at the moment. Whilst I still had a good day, and enjoyed many of their rides/attractions as ever, it wasn't quite the 'excellence across the board' that I have come to expect.

I felt that ride reliability and operations in some areas left a little to be desired. Taron and Raik were the biggest offenders, both broke down and in the case of Taron, several times. Communication with regard to the breakdowns was merely via a pre-recorded announcement. In addition, throughput on Taron is very erratic and whilst it achieved 1000+ at times, more often than not it was below this figure. Given the length of the queue, it really needs better. It is also deeply unpleasant waiting in the overspill queue which is not themed. The amount of smokers in the park, who seem intent on doing so in queue lines, is also a poor indictment of the park's clientele. Frustratingly, both Klugheim coasters closed earlier than all the other rides. This is baffling to me, given they're the most popular and most recent. Can you imaging Alton Towers closing Wicker Man an hour before the other rides?

Quick Pass also seems to be a little out of control. RiverQuest advertised an 80 minute queue during the afternoon. The ride has never had a great capacity compared to a standard rapids, but when 1 out of every 3 or 4 boats is entirely being given to Quick Pass, it is no wonder the queue is so long. Phantasialand Annual Pass Holders now seem to get free Quick Pass, which is ridiculous and is exasperating the situation. Colorado Adventure is also irritating, given that many people like to wait for the back car. Why, then, allow Quick Pass guests to use the back rows!?

The Fantasy Area needs work. Wuze Town, and its exterior area, is starting to look very tired. Paint has faded, Winjas queue is really quite unpleasant and I feel that generally it's not what it was/should be. For a park like Phantasialand, which prides itself on beautiful themed experiences, it's not very good.

The bus service to Bruhl is also insufferable. Far too full and an unpleasant way to start and end your day.

On the plus side, the new buffet at Ling Bao is wonderful. Like - one of the best theme park meals I have ever had.

The park continues to invest heavily in new attractions and experiences, but I don't think everything they are doing at the moment seems to be in the best interests of providing the best day out. With Europa-Park and Efteling only improving, Phantasialand need to remember it isn't just about fancy theming.

 

[John]

Interesting thoughts, I've often felt PL is lacking something despite being probably the best presented park in Europe (well, the right hand side of the park anyway).

It's been a couple of years since I've visited PL in the summer season, Taron was still fairly new at the time so I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt regarding the horrible extended queue line and questionable reliability, 2 years on it's disappointing that the situation hasn't really improved very much.

I've always disliked their quick queue system, it's just so badly managed - both Mamba and Colorado use the exit as the quick queue entrance which slows down operations, plus the way the system has been implemented means they have very little control over how much is used on each ride other than relying on platform staff to keep the ratios in check. Mamba clearly should use the fire exit in the extended queue by the lake as a quick queue entrance, which would put it a similar distance from the station as the Nemesis fastrack entrance. Still not as bad as the shared front row/quick queue system they used to operate though, that was awful.

As for River Quest, it's been a bit of a misery to queue for in all the years I've been visiting, I remember waiting an hour for it back in 2007 despite the queue not really seeming particularly long. The ride system itself is just really inefficient compared to a conventional rapids. Extra quick queue is clearly not helping the situation

I think part of the problem for the park is that there's a lot of popular rides that are significantly under capacity (Taron, Raik, River Quest, Winjas, Maus) whilst at the same time they've got rides with huge capacities that no-one really cares about (Temple..., Hollywood Tour, Geister). Colorado could have been a massive crowd absorber if they'd remembered to build a proper queue for it, so now it just spills out all the way back to the rope pen near the theatre as it's only about 30-40 minutes even to there on full capacity.

 

[AstroDan]

I should add, QP guests on Mamba were being let onto the platform with moving trains. So that they could literally board the moment the train parked. I was quite surprised by that given how dark the station is! However, it meant that guests on the rows QP were using were told to wait in the bay.

 

[John]

German H&S basically doesn't exist does it?

Meanwhile at UK Merlin parks, locked gates retrofitted to station exits.

 

[DiogoJ42]

German H&S does exist, but it opperates on the principal of, "the machine itself is built properly. If, however, you choose to stick your head in the path of a 10 ton train moving at 70kph, you get what you deserve."

 

[Matt N]

Sounds like you didn't enjoy your visit as much as many others always seem to at Phantasialand, which is a shame. Out of interest, what did you think to the attractions that you rode themselves? I've also got a few other questions, if you wouldn't mind answering them:

• With regards to your point about the overspill queue line being themed poorly, do you mean in comparison to the rest of the area or in general? I was only asking because from videos I've seen of Taron's queue, even the cattle pens are still surrounded by lovely rock work and buildings. Klugheim in general looks like a beautifully detailed area, one of the few areas in a regional theme park that rivals the likes of Pandora and Diagon Alley.
• Would you guess that Taron was hitting its theoretical throughput of 1200pph at all during the course of the day? Very interesting to hear that it often seeped below 1000pph, I often hear people say that Taron has an excellent throughput; on its opening day, the queue was apparently under 2 hours!
• How long would you say you waited for Taron on average?

Sorry to ask so many questions, I'm just intrigued, as I've never been to Phantasialand before, and I would like to go when I'm a bit older!

 

[John]

The main visual in Taron's overspill queue is a sort of "garden wall", basically a load of vines/trailing plants running up 30ft walls on 2 sides. There's a tall wooden fence on a 3rd blocking the view of the queue from the adjacent path and a high walled-in bridge on the 4th (the path over the bridge being the only way to see how long the queue actually is prior to joining, if like me you don't trust the queue time boards).

The area is pretty much completely boxed in and whilst you can see parts of the ride and rock work on the whole the visuals are limited and to make matters worse you can spend an hour or more in a relatively small space not really going very far. It would be pretty dull out of context but as it's so far below the quality of the area as a whole it's even more jarring. The below photo gives an idea (note it's a panorama, so the photo distorts the area and makes it look a lot wider than it actually is).

Capacity varies, trains only seat 16 so getting above 1000/hr consistently is difficult even with the offload platform, in my experience it often has at least 1 train not in use - in summer 2016 they were down to just 1 by the end of the day so I didn't bother (I think some of our group, those who rated it the highest, stuck it out).

 

[Matt N]

Ah right. Thanks @John! I suppose that garden wall does look slightly jarring when compared to the rock work next to it!

 

[AstroDan]

I have been to PL many times and generally enjoy the park.

If it's busy, though, it gets pretty claustrophobic as it is so small.

The Taron extended queue is generally unpleasant to be in.